PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A Superior Court judge has been asked to rule on the constitutionality of a 2014 state law intended to ease settlements in the 38 Studios lawsuit.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A Superior Court judge has been asked to rule on the constitutionality of a 2014 state law intended to ease settlements in the 38 Studios lawsuit.

Lawyers in the case suggested to Superior Court Judge Michael A. Silverstein on Monday that a ruling on the law would help determine their strategies in the lawsuit – still in its pre-trial stage nearly 20 months after its start.

The R.I. Economic Development Corporation (now the R.I. Commerce Corporation) in November 2012 sued 14 people or entities that helped engineer a $75 million loan guarantee for 38 Studios – the Massachusetts videogame company founded by ex-Red Sox pitching great Curt Schilling.

Schilling’s company failed in June 2012, just months after releasing its first videogame. The EDC filed the lawsuit against Schilling and the others hoping to secure money to pay the bonds the agency sold to fund 38 Studios.

Earlier this month, two of the defendants — Antonio Afonso Jr. and his firm Moses Afonso Ryan – agreed to pay the agency nearly $4.4 million to settle their part in the lawsuit.

Two of their codefendants, former EDC executive director Keith Stokes and former deputy director J. Michael Saul, sued to block the settlement. Stokes has since dropped out of that portion of the case, but Saul continues on.

Introduced in the spring at the request of Governor Chafee’s administration, the law shields any defendant that settles with the state in the 38 Studios case from lawsuits brought by other defendants over damages for which that defendant is found liable.